George Herbert Walker Bush, Gentle Warrior

“We know what works: Freedom works. We know what's right: Freedom is right. We know how to secure a more just and prosperous life for man on Earth: through free markets, free speech, free elections, and the exercise of free will unhampered by the state.”

U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush

Inaugural Address, January 20, 1989

Today, we celebrate former-President George H. W. Bush’s life and legacy of sacrificial love. Devoted husband and father to six children (including a United States president and Florida governor) Bush understood the value of God’s gifts of life and liberty.

As an eighteen-year-old he served as the Navy’s youngest combat pilot during World War II. At age ninety-four, Bush was the oldest living former president in history.

On November 9, 1989 Bush saw decades of fighting for freedom culminate in the fall of the Berlin Wall, and two years later, the collapse of the Soviet Union. Bush’s roles during the Cold War included U.S. Member of Congress, Ambassador to the United Nations, Chief of the U. S. Liaison Office in the People’s Republic of China, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Vice President under Ronald Reagan, and of course President of the United States.

Bush grew in his compassion for the unborn from his early political days. While he had favored “population control” as a congressman, during his presidency, the United States filed a 1992 amicus brief in Planned Parenthood v Casey in favor of the constitutionality of Pennsylvania’s pro-life laws. Then Solicitor General Kenneth Starr wrote, “Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and should be overruled . . . protection of innocent human life – in or out of the womb – is certainly the most compelling interest that a State can advance.”

We pray for the thousands of friends and family members who already miss former President Bush, his wit, and his gentle demeanor. “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).